Steyr SSG Carbon Now Available in U.S.

A year after its release, the Steyr SSG Carbon is finally available in the U.S.

Gun makers have been pulling every shape, size and design of precision rifle out of the woodworks as of late. Steyr is one of the most recent.

Technically, the Austrian manufacturer’s SSG Carbon has been around for a while, released at the 2014 SHOT Show. But it only lately has become available on the U.S. market, due to the rifle’s demand among the globe’s law enforcement agencies.

According to Steyr, it took 16 months just to fulfill its initial volley of orders for its new .308 Winchester. Given the SSG Carbon’s features, it is understandable why the rifle caught the eye of so many professional marksmen.

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Along these lines, maybe the most impressive aspect of the bolt-action is the ruggedness Steyr has engineered into it. This is especially true for one massive feature of the rifle — its stock.

The benefits of carbon-fiber as a stock material hasn’t been a secret for sometime now. The rigidness of the material and its ability to resist environmental fluctuations makes it ideal for use in a stock. At the same tick, conventional woven carbon fiber can be brittle, particularly if stuck from the side.

Steyr used a different technique to form the SSG’s stock, turning to chipped-carbon Sheet Molding Compound. The process takes carbon flakes and combines them thermally with a binder, creating a material that has a tension net superior to steel, but at a fraction of its weight. In addition to its strength and rigidity, Steyr also touts SMC stock’s ability to reduce the rifle’s recoil.

The stock also has a number of features built into it that are certain to win points with long-distance shooters, including: multiple sling mounting points, adjustable cheek piece and butt plate, rubber-wrapped pistol grip, heavy bipod and integrated rear elevation pod.

Steyr is offering the SSG Carbon with both a 20- and 22.4-inch barrels, each cut with a 1:10-inch right hand twist. And it has a 10-round double-stack detachable polymer magazine. The rifle weighs in at a hair over 11 pounds and has an overall length of 43.4 inches.

Elwood Shelton is an online content developer for Gun Digest. He is a gun owner and avid reloader from Colorado. When not at his press or the range he can be found chasing mule deer around the Rocky Mountains.